1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to data scraping from web portals and verification of the data.
2. Background and Relevant Art
In an effort to streamline productivity and to combat fraud, many countries are moving towards mandating electronic invoicing. In many cases, government mandated invoicing requires companies, and sometimes individuals, to register invoices through a government entity. The registered invoices can be digitally signed, or otherwise authenticated.
Additionally, in some cases to mandate the use of electronic invoicing, only electronically registered invoices will be legally valid. As such, companies are highly motivated to ensure that invoices are properly registered. Similarly, companies are highly motivated to ensure that the registered invoices are correct and complete in order to avoid problems with not valid invoices.
When processing payments and invoices, companies are often required to perform complex, error-prone tasks in order to access and verify the various invoices. For example, in order to access invoices, a purchaser may be required to access a providers web portal. Each web portal from each provider may be unique and complex. Additionally, each web portal may provide the invoices information in a different, unique format. As such, the purchaser must identify the proper way to navigate each unique website and individually verify that the necessary invoices and documents are downloaded. The purchaser must then verify the downloaded invoices and documents against their own records.
Additionally, in at least some implementations, it is necessary to upload invoices to a web portal and verify the invoice entries. For example, an invoice provider may be required to upload and validate an invoice against a related purchase order. It may be further necessary for the invoice provider to address any discrepancies between the invoice and the purchase order before the invoice can be processed.
Further, in at least one implementation, a user may be limited to a short time window during which invoices can be uploaded. For example, an invoice provider may only have a two-hour window to enter all of the day's invoices. Failure to enter the information can create an ongoing backlog into the next day or result in failure to timely collect money.
Accordingly, there are a number of disadvantages in the art that can be addressed.